Musters and Fire Engines

The ship's general alarm is very loud at any time, but when it goes off in your cabin at 3.15am on a Sunday morning, you get quite a shock. In my 5 years living on a ship, I had never known it to go off in the night, so I shot out of bed and quickly started getting the kids dressed. The alarm is 6 short beeps and then 1 long one. When it finished, the captain made an announcement that everyone must report immediately to their muster station.
So we all headed up in shock to our muster stations in the lounge or dining room. One of the officers told everyone to sit down and wait for the muster station leaders to call out our names.
Gradually everyone filed in and as names were read out and some were found missing, the control team was dispatched to check cabins and locate people. Eventually some 25 mins later, we were all accounted for. We still had no idea what was happening. Was it a bomb threat or a fire?
The captain came a few minutes later to explain that there had been a phone call made to a cabin and someone had made out they had severe breathing difficulties. The bridge was informed and they had been unable to locate where the call had come from and whether someone's life was in danger. After a team of officers and medical staff had searched a large number of cabins for nearly an hour, the captain decided that the only way to ensure that everyone was safe, was to call a muster. In fact everyone was fine.
We don't know who made the call or why, but we now know how well our muster drills work in the night!!

Then on Monday morning, I put my head out of my office to see the captain running down the corridor, followed by 3 German firemen, fully kitted out. There were 4 fire engines on the quayside, one with it's extending platform already above the stern of the ship. and another one heading in the gate. The captain and the officers onboard were very surprised because we have a very sophisticated fire detection system on the ship and no one was aware of any potential fire. The first thought was that someone onboard had called the fire brigade. But it turned out that some people in an office along the shore behind the ship had seen what they thought was smoke coming out of the back of the ship. It turned out to be dust coming from needle gunning the deck, and sparks from a grinder.
We are thankful that neither of these incidents were serious but it is a constant reminder of the inherent risks of living on a ship.